“The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution”
By Walter Isaacson
Published by Simon & Schuster, October 6, 2015
ISBN-13: 978-1476708706
What were the talents that allowed certain inventors and entrepreneurs to turn their visionary ideas into disruptive realities? What led to their creative leaps? Why did some succeed and others fail?
The Innovators is a masterly saga of collaborative genius destined to be the standard history of the digital revolution—and an indispensable guide to how innovation really happens. Isaacson begins the adventure with Ada Lovelace, Lord Byron’s daughter, who pioneered computer programming in the 1840s. He explores the fascinating personalities that created our current digital revolution, such as Vannevar Bush, Alan Turing, John von Neumann, J.C.R. Licklider, Doug Engelbart, Robert Noyce, Bill Gates, Steve Wozniak, Steve Jobs, Tim Berners-Lee, and Larry Page.
This is the story of how their minds worked and what made them so inventive. It’s also a narrative of how their ability to collaborate and master the art of teamwork made them even more creative. For an era that seeks to foster innovation, creativity, and teamwork, The Innovators is “a sweeping and surprisingly tenderhearted history of the digital age” (The New York Times).
From the Introduction
“The computer and the Internet are among the most important inventions of our era, but few people know who created them. They were not conjured up in a garret or garage by solo inventors suitable to be singled out on magazine covers or put into a pantheon with Edison, Bell, and Morse. Instead, most of the innovations of the digital age were done collaboratively. There were a lot of fascinating people involved, some ingenious and a few even geniuses. This is the story of these pioneers, hackers, inventors, and entrepreneurs—who they were, how their minds worked, and what made them so creative. It’s also a narrative of how they collaborated and why their ability to work as teams made them even more creative.”
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About the Author:
Walter Isaacson, a professor of history at Tulane, has been CEO of the Aspen Institute, chair of CNN, and editor of Time. He is the author of Leonardo da Vinci; The Innovators; Steve Jobs; Einstein: His Life and Universe; Benjamin Franklin: An American Life; and Kissinger: A Biography, and the coauthor of The Wise Men: Six Friends and the World They Made. Visit him at Isaacson.Tulane.edu.
See Also:
- “The Innovators: How a Group of Inventors Hackers Geniuses and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution”
University of California Television (UCTV), February 5, 2015 – What were the talents that allowed certain inventors and entrepreneurs to turn their visionary ideas into disruptive realities? What led to their creative leaps? Why did some succeed and others fail? Walter Isaacson’s talk is centered around his latest book, The Innovators, and how the creators of Microsoft, Apple, and others came to be the leaders of the current Digital Revolution. Series: “Walter H. Capps Center Series” - “The Innovators | Walter Isaacson | Talks at Google”
Talks at Google, November 5, 2014 – The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution. Walter Isaacson and two pioneers of the Internet, Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn, discuss Isaacson’s new book, and how their collaboration changed the way the world communicates. In his new book, The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution, Walter Issacson explores the power of creative and disruptive innovation. This conversation, led by Cerf, Google’s Chief Internet Evangelist, and delves into Isaacson’s story of the Digital Revolution and the people who made it happen.
